Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Has the popular obsession with fantasy got out of hand?

WHEN a presumably deranged young man sprayed a crowded
cinema with gunfire, killing 12 people and wounding dozens of others, there
followed the usual anguished self-examination in the American media.

As when similar terrible events have happened in the past, attention
focussed on America’s permissive gun laws. But is there another aspect to this
tragedy that was overlooked?

It seemed significant that the shooter, James Holmes, chose
to embark on his murderous spree at the premiere of the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. It was reported
later that Batman posters and a Batman mask were found in his apartment,
suggesting some sort of infantile fixation with the caped crusader. Other
reports suggested Holmes identified with Batman’s nemesis, the Joker.

In the circumstances, you have to wonder whether the popular
obsession with fantasy has got out of hand.

Why any adult would take a comic-book character like Batman seriously
is a mystery. In the 1960s, television quite rightly treated him as a subject
of camp satire. Yet film critics solemnly analyse Batman films (and other equally
ridiculous “superhero” films such as the Spiderman
series) as if they had the weight of works by Shakespeare or Chekhov.

Fans certainly take Batman far too seriously, as was evident
from the furious response that was triggered when negative reviews of the new
film started appearing online. Movie websites were swamped with messages so
toxic and malicious that some sites had to be shut down.

If fans can be so emotionally attached to Batman that they
respond to mildly critical reviews with rabid threats and vicious abuse, is it
any wonder that Holmes should be so obsessed that he chose the screening of the
film to play out his own lethal, overheated fantasy?

It may defy rational understanding, but it can’t be ruled
out.

Fantasy movies are now a Hollywood staple. Many are dark and
violent and depict a dystopian society.The
same is true of many video games, which are so important to some men that they
will pulverise their partners’ crying babies into silence so that they can
continue playing uninterrupted.

Obsession with fantasy is the new norm. TV series about
vampires rate their socks off. In the top-rating comedy series The Big Bang Theory, the main characters
frequent comic-book stores and imagine themselves as characters from Star Trek or Doctor Who. This is presented as endearing rather than absurd.

Comic-Con conventions such as the one recently held in San
Diego attract more than 100,000 fans, all of them immersed in fantasy of one
sort or another, whether it’s science-fiction, horror or vampirism. They seem locked
in a strange, perpetual adolescence.

No doubt for most of the people who attend events like
Comic-Con, it’s harmless fun. But we shouldn’t be surprised if occasionally,
someone totally loses the ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality,
with tragic consequences.

* * *

SPEAKING of fantasies, director Sir Peter Jackson, director
of The Hobbit, recently revealed that
the Tolkien estate doesn’t like his movies. I’m not surprised.

I don’t believe Jackson has treated J R R Tolkien’s stories
with the respect they deserve. He has taken Tolkien’s profound fables and
turned them into noisy, pointless action spectacles.

Jackson is an immensely talented man but it seems a common
characteristic of the films he’s involved in – whether it’s The Adventures of Tintin, The Lord of the Rings or District 9 – that no matter how
promisingly they start, they eventually degenerate into ridiculous
extravaganzas in which any trace of nuance or subtlety is buried under layers
of furious action and special effects.

* * *

ANOTHER Maori Language Week has come and gone, and with it
the now-familiar lamentations that te reo is in decline and must be
resuscitated. But as someone commented on the Stuff website: “If a language
needs rescuing, it’s already too late.”

Maori will survive as a language if there is a compelling
economic or cultural reason for it. But if it’s still struggling after 37 years
of Maori language weeks, 31 years of kohanga reo and eight years of Maori TV,
perhaps it should be taken off life support and left to cope as best it can.

Black American linguist John McWhorter has argued that most
languages ultimately outlive their usefulness and cannot be sustained by
artificial means.

Perhaps more importantly, McWhorter makes the point that a
multiplicity of languages encourages segregation and apartness. As he says: “The prospect we are taught to
dread – that one day all the world’s people will speak one language – is one I
would welcome.”

And we should look on the bright side. There may be fewer
people able to converse in Maori, but the number of Maori words and phrases in
common usage by Pakeha is infinitely greater than it was; and what’s more, many
more Pakeha are making an effort to pronounce Maori names correctly.

1 comment:

It is amazing that people take films like Batman so seriously but then there is a whole generation that seems to consider rock music to be worth consideration and detailed dissection. Most of the people on Red Radio are of this opinion and happily play and comment on the most banal pop music as though it actually had some quality and even some depth. So much for modern education.

About Me

I am a freelance journalist and columnist living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand. In the presence of Greenies I like to boast that I walk to work each day - I've paced it out and it's about 15 metres. I write about all sorts of stuff: politics, the media, music, wine, films, cycling and anything else that piques my interest - even sport, though I admit I don't have the intuitive understanding of sport that most New Zealand males absorb as if by osmosis. I'm a former musician (bass and guitar) with a lifelong love of music that led me to write my book 'A Road Tour of American Song Titles: From Mendocino to Memphis', published by Bateman NZ in July 2016. I've been in journalism for more than 40 years and like many journalists I know a little bit about a lot of things and probably not enough about anything. I have never won any journalism awards.